OCR PDF
Make scanned English PDF documents searchable and selectable with optical character recognition.
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OCR PDF guide
How to make a scanned PDF searchable
Fylento uses optical character recognition to detect English text on scanned or image-based PDF pages, then adds an invisible text layer over the original pages so the words can be searched and selected.
Add a scanned PDF
Select a PDF from your device. Fylento checks which pages already contain searchable text.
Run English OCR
Pages without text are rendered and recognized locally with the English OCR engine.
Download the searchable PDF
Fylento keeps the original page appearance and adds recognized text invisibly on top.
What OCR changes inside the PDF
The visible scanned pages stay intact. Fylento adds recognized words as an invisible text layer positioned over the original page, which makes the document searchable without replacing the scan itself.
Original page appearance stays intact
OCR does not rebuild the visible page from scratch. The original PDF page remains the visual layer in the output.
Search and select recognized words
Recognized English words are written into the PDF as invisible text so compatible PDF readers can search and select them.
Existing text can be skipped
By default, pages that already contain selectable text are skipped so Fylento does not OCR them unnecessarily.
Force OCR when needed
Enable Force OCR if you want every page recognized again, including pages that already contain a text layer.
What affects OCR accuracy?
OCR works best on clear English text with good contrast and straight pages. Recognition quality can drop when scans are blurry, skewed, very small, handwritten, decorative, or heavily compressed.
Clear scans work best
Sharp text, strong contrast, and readable font sizes give the OCR engine the best chance of recognizing words correctly.
English only
The current Fylento OCR tool is configured for English documents. Other languages are not currently supported by this page.
OCR is not perfect
Important names, numbers, dates, and legal text should still be checked against the visible scan because OCR can misread characters.
Run OCR locally in your browser
Fylento performs the OCR processing on your device rather than uploading the PDF to a remote conversion server for recognition.
Local OCR processing
PDF rendering, text recognition, and output PDF creation happen in the browser.
No visual replacement of pages
The tool adds searchable text while keeping the visible scanned page as the original page content.
When OCR PDF is useful
OCR is useful when a PDF looks readable on screen but behaves like an image instead of normal selectable text.
OCR PDF FAQ
What is OCR?
OCR stands for optical character recognition. It analyzes text visible inside an image or scan and converts recognized characters into machine-readable text.
Will OCR change how my PDF looks?
The visible scanned pages remain intact. Fylento adds an invisible text layer over them rather than replacing the pages with newly rendered versions.
Does Fylento OCR pages that already contain text?
Normally no. Pages that already contain selectable text are skipped. You can enable Force OCR if you specifically want every page recognized again.
Which languages are supported?
The current OCR PDF tool supports English recognition only.
Why are some recognized words incorrect?
OCR accuracy depends on scan quality, font style, contrast, page rotation, text size, and image clarity. Blurry or distorted scans are more likely to produce recognition errors.
Related PDF tools
Continue working with the searchable document using other Fylento PDF tools.
PDF to Text
Extract selectable text from a PDF after OCR has made the document searchable.
PDF to Word
Convert a PDF into a DOCX when you need a Word-format copy of the document.
Compress PDF
Reduce the file size when the searchable PDF is larger than you want for sharing or upload limits.
Repair PDF
Try to rebuild a PDF with structural problems before running OCR on it.